When animal welfare isn’t

As every middle school student in the country knows, the slogan of the Inner Party in George Orwell’s “1984” is, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Animal Abuse is Animal Care.”

Okay, that last one isn’t from the novel; sadly, it’s from real life Massachusetts politics, where powerful agribusiness lobbyists are trying to subvert democracy and perpetuate a system of systematic cruelty to animals.

First some background: Over the past decade, citizens and legislators in nine states have passed laws to protect farm animals from the three most egregious confinement systems that exist on modern factory farms — battery cages, which confine five or more hens to cages about the size of a filing cabinet; and gestation and veal crates, which confine pregnant pigs and calves, respectively, in a space roughly the size of their bodies, so that they can’t even turn around for almost their entire lives.

Americans are a compassionate people, with 95 percent saying that farm animals should be well cared for. Indeed, every time citizens have been able to vote on confinement systems, they’ve voted against them by overwhelming majorities, including in conservative states like Florida and Arizona, and this despite united opposition from Big Ag lobby powerhouses.

Massachusetts is considering two bills that are similar to the nine that have passed in other states: First, S.741, introduced by Sen. Robert L. Hedlund would ban gestation and veal crates. Second, H.1456, introduced by Rep. Jason Lewis, would go one step farther and also ban battery cages. In California, which banned all three systems in 2008 with a bill similar to H.1456, the initiative garnered more votes than any other ballot initiative in California history, despite more than $10 million spent by agricultural interests to defeat it.

Some in agriculture see the writing on the wall: They realize that these horrific systems, which deny animals their every natural desire and in which animals go insane from the stress and lack of mental stimulation, are destined for the dustbin of history. But some in animal agriculture are taking a page from George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” attempting to defend these cruel systems by going around the democratic process.

Enter Massachusetts’ bill H.753, which would establish an 11-member “Livestock Board” designed to subvert democratically enacted farm animal protection legislation, including both bills currently under consideration in Massachusetts.

With perfect Orwellian pitch, the bill’s authors claim that H.753 is “an act to promote the care and well-being of livestock.” In fact, H.753 was created to stop animal protection legislation, as is clear from the fact that the only power it has is to vacate standards promulgated by the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture. That’s right, it can vacate legal requirements, but it has no power to create compulsory standards for “the care and well-being of” farm animals.

That’s why the Livestock Board bill is strongly supported by the entire Big Ag establishment (that has never — not once in American history — supported a piece of farm animal welfare legislation) and is opposed by all the groups that work on farm animal welfare, from the Humane Society of the United States, to the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, to the ASPCA, to my organization, Farm Sanctuary. Even the two groups that would have seats on the board oppose its creation.

The farm animal protection bills proposed by Sen. Hedlund and Rep. Lewis are common-sense bills that require only the barest of bare minimums for farm animal welfare — requiring that animals be able to turn around and, for chickens, that they be able to spread their wings. Can you imagine spending your entire life in one spot, unable to do anything you want to do? Your muscles and bones would waste away, and you would go insane from the stress. The same is true of farm animals. This abuse needs to stop.

The Livestock Board bill, on the other hand, represents anti-democratic insider politics at its worst; it’s a bill designed to thwart democracy and hand power to an unaccountable board of mostly self-interested apologists for the worst practices in modern agriculture.

The choice before Massachusetts citizens is both simple and obvious: Please tell your legislators that you support farm animal protection (S.741 and H.1456) and oppose Big Ag’s Orwellian “Livestock Board” (H.753).

Bruce Friedrich is Senior Director for Advocacy at Farm Sanctuary, a national nonprofit organization that provides shelter to rescued farm animals, works to improve conditions on farms and in slaughterhouses, and educates the public about compassionate vegan living.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.